Sinister South

Once we've covered the essentials (Hannah's official unemployment era, a Duran Duran Father's Day card with some truly phoned-in puns, and the ongoing scandal of Rach absolutely not saying the words "Henry Cavill"), we get into the actual case. 
In the spring of 1954, a box of sweets went round a London office. By the end of that night, two of the young women who took a piece were dead. This week Rach takes us back to the Arthur Ford case, and to the woman at the heart of it: Betty Grant, a 27-year-old typist from Wimbledon. Betty had told her married boss, more than once, that she wasn't interested. His answer was to lace her sweets with Spanish Fly, an old "love potion" that is really one of the most savage poisons known to man. Betty and her 19-year-old colleague June Malins never stood a chance.
We get into what Spanish Fly actually is, and why its giggling aphrodisiac reputation is a two-thousand-year-old lie, taking in ancient Rome, the Marquis de Sade, and a poisoning at the very same Old Bailey where Ford would later stand, more than 200 years before he got there. Then we follow the thread right up to the present, because the myth, and the men who hide behind it, never really went away.
It's a story about a rare and horrible poison, yes. But underneath it sits the same story we seem to tell every week. A woman said no, and a man decided her no didn't count.
Content warning: this episode includes discussion of drink spiking, sexual violence, and graphic descriptions of poisoning.
Support the show
Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river... 

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

One hundred episodes. We genuinely can't believe it either.
To mark the milestone we've torn up the format. There's no case this week. Instead, Rachel and Hannah are in the hot seat, and for one episode only their long-suffering editor Will steps out from behind the desk to host.
Expect Sinister South by the numbers, including the oldest case we've ever covered and exactly how many days of true crime you'd need to binge to catch up. Then a batch of questions sent in by the people who've stuck with us from the start: why we started, the cases that affected us most, who'd play us in the film, and which haunted corner of south east London we'd least like to spend a night in. After that, Will runs a quiz to find out how well we actually remember our own back catalogue.
Stay to the end for a reel of our most unhinged outtakes, a fresh batch of gloriously context-free voice notes from Rachel's sister Becky, and a proper thank you to you, the Trevors.
Here's to the next hundred. Normal service, and a new case, returns next Wednesday.
Support the show
Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river... 

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

But first, the important business: Rach's new hair (currently being hated on a strict day-two schedule), Will's ongoing obsession with the Sidcup goose tattoo man, and the small matter of a Netflix documentary sending a flood of brand-new Trevors our way. If you're one of them, welcome. We have cookies, chocolate, and pins we will absolutely never send you.
Then Han takes us back to the summer of 1978, and a five-year-old called Andrea Bernard. She suffered catastrophic burns in the bath at her family home in Thornton Heath, held on for nearly six weeks, and died of an infection the doctors couldn't beat. A coroner recorded the obvious conclusion: a heart-breaking accident. That was the story for 47 years.
This week we unpick how it came undone. How Andrea's older brother carried what he'd heard through the bathroom wall since the age of eight, and finally walked into a Croydon police station decades later to say it out loud. And how the woman who'd been in that house, later celebrated as an author and a former drug dealer turned probation worker, came to stand trial for a death everyone had signed off before some of the detectives were even born.
Please note: this episode discusses the abuse and death of a child, including burns. Look after yourselves.
Support the show
Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river... 

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

On the morning of 10th October 2011, 58-year-old Sally Hodkin left her house in Bexleyheath for her usual walk to work. She was 500 yards from her own front door when she was attacked and killed by Nicola Edgington, a woman who had murdered her own mother six years earlier and had been released back into the community by the NHS.

In the hours before Sally's death, Edgington had told police she was dangerous, walked out of a psychiatric unit, and begged multiple services to help her. Nobody listened.

This week Rachel takes Hannah through every missed opportunity, every form that wasn't sent and every door that should have been locked. It's a long one, but every minute of it matters.
Trigger warnings: fatal stabbing, mental health crisis, drug use, miscarriage & graphic violence.
Sources include:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46022330
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40378509
https://www.england.nhs.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2017/06/Report-of-the-independent-investigation-into-the-care-and-treatment-of-Ms-A.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21321005
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Edgington
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66842327
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-21652436
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21195602
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24868749
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21653018
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21260313
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21374967
https://www.hundredfamilies.org/independent-investigation-hodkin-family-statement/
https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-09-20/victims-family-warns-she-will-kill-again-as-conviction-could-be-downgraded
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/09/sally-hodkin-nhs-mental-health
https://www.london-now.co.uk/news/25968695.bexleyheath-killer-nicola-edgington-loses-murder-conviction-appeal/
https://www.channel4.com/news/suspect-left-mental-health-unit-before-stabbing
https://murderpedia.org/female.E/e/edgington-nicola.htm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46034803
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/nicola-edgington-meat-cleaver-murder-manslaughter-court-of-appeal-b1107644.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2874993/police-in-100k-bid-to-cover-up-murder-of-gran-by-mental-health-patient-who-pleaded-to-be-sectioned/
https://www.hundredfamilies.org/sally-hodkin-memorial-match-2017/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15280814
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/17/nhs-pays-psychotic-killers-to-give-health-advice/
Support the show
Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river... 

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

This week, we go back to 1831 and the Croydon Canal, where two empty boats were found drifting on still water. A week later, the body of a pregnant woman surfaced. Her name, or at least the name history gives us, was Mary Clarke.
Mary had been seen days earlier preparing to meet the father of her unborn child. She was dressed in a fine cotton gown, a black silk cloak and a white straw bonnet, with a small key in her pocket that remains one of the most frustrating details of the case. But despite her injuries, despite the missing companion who vanished from the record, and despite the two unnamed men last seen with her, the inquest returned a verdict of “found drowned”.
Nearly 200 years later, we’re left with a woman no one claimed, a canal that no longer exists, and a question that still hasn’t been answered: who put Mary Clarke in the water?
This episode includes discussion of pregnancy, suicide, violence against women, murder, drowning and historical attitudes towards unmarried pregnant women. 
Support the show
Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river... 

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)